Division I Men

NCAA Notes: Drexel's Early Tightrope Act

In three games this season,
Drexel has played three one-goal thrillers, starting 1-2 on the
year. (John Strohsacker/LaxPhotos.com)

The Drexel Dragons have grown quite accustomed to walking the
tightrope that has become so familiar in collegiate lacrosse.

A year ago, the Dragons won five of six one-goal, regular-season
decisions. They abruptly had their playoff hopes dashed by
late-charging Towson, 11-8, in the Colonial Athletic Association
tournament championship game.

If the beginning of the 2014 season serves as a tone setter for
what lies ahead this spring, it's going to be a nail-biting ride
for the Dragons, who have the stuff to win the CAA and play into
late May.

After dropping a gut-wrenching, 11-10, overtime decision at
Villanova on a frigid Tuesday night in Philly, Drexel is 1-2. Every
one of the Dragons' first three games has come down to the slimmest
of margins.

There was the near-miss in the season opener against Virginia,
which outlasted Drexel, 11-10. The Dragons followed that with a
gutty, 14-13 victory at Albany, which had just dropped a one-goal
thriller at Syracuse in its season opener.

The morning after the loss to the Wildcats, Drexel coach Brian
Voelker sounded the torturous tune of self-flagellation.

"We let one get away last night, and it drives you crazy," said
Voelker, who watched the Dragons blow a 10-8 fourth-quarter lead,
before shooting 0-for-3 in OT and failing in a huge, extra-man
situation that preceded Austin Frederick's game-winning goal with
54 seconds left.

"I'm kicking myself because I had some timeouts in my pocket
when we were in extra man with two minutes left. But I didn't want
[Nova] to have time to set up with [LSM standout John] Locascio.
I'm kicking myself because we probably shouldn't have been playing
Villanova on a Tuesday night after they had a 10-day layoff. We
have the pieces to be really good. We weren't good enough last
night."

With senior attackman Nick Trizano (eight goals in 2014) limited
by a sore hamstring in the windy, 22-degree chill, Drexel nearly
stole one from Villanova after being outshot, 57-34. Gabrielsen
made eight of his 16 saves in the first quarter and lifted the
Dragons to a 5-3 lead.

Don't expect Drexel to go away. The Dragons, who host Robert
Morris on Saturday, have too much firepower and too much heart. But
Voelker sees their stressful journey in February as illustrative of
the parity that continues to dominate the sport.

"The bottom line is there isn't a lot that separates teams
ranked from five to 20," he said. "My immediate message to our team
is we're 1-2 and we've got to be 2-2. It's that simple."

Johns Hopkins Enters Phase Two

Stage two of the journey for Johns Hopkins kicks in Saturday,
when the Blue Jays (3-0) travel to Princeton to renew a
long-standing rivalry. A year after missing the NCAA tournament for
the first time since 1971, the Blue Jays have had solid results
thus far with a new midfield rotation and a new-look offense under
coordinator Bobby Benson, who has installed a system heavy on
screens and pick-and-roll movement.

Hopkins has out-scored Ohio State, Towson and Michigan by a
combined 39-22. It overcame slow starts before knocking off OSU and
Towson, then scored nine of the game's first 10 goals against the
overmatched Wolverines before coasting to a 14-5 win.

"We're still not as organized as we need to be. We're still not
making all of the right reads and setting screens the way we need
to be. Our middies are still developing their personality," said
Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala, who will go after his 151st
victory in his 14th year at Homewood.

With faceoff man Drew Kennedy winning 67.8 percent of his draws
and attackman Wells Stanwick (13 assists) fueling the offense, the
Blue Jays will need to improve their pedestrian 29.3 percent
shooting as the schedule ramps up in March.

Rough Winter Fuels Talk of Later Start

As the endlessly fierce winter rages on in much of the country,
with countless games being played in freezing temperatures framed
by snow that refuses to melt, the chatter continues regarding how
to address early-scheduling concerns that affect the sport.

One idea that continues to percolate in some circles is to start
more uniformly in mid-to-late February, convince more schools to
stack their first month with midweek games to maintain a more even
playing field, and extend the NCAA playoffs into June.

Then again, getting the sport's coaches to adopt such groupthink
is quite a challenge. Many would rather start earlier, and stretch
out the year with more one-game weeks and avoid the likelihood of
an increase in injuries.

"Every year at our convention, we talk about how to stop the
season from starting earlier and earlier. But nothing gets done
about it," Albany coach Scott Marr said.

"If everybody had to play two games a week for the first month
of the season, moving the schedule back wouldn't be an issue,"
Drexel coach Brian Voelker said. "If we keep hearing the term
'polar vortex,' we might be able to get something done on
this."